`Reverse Underground Railroad' Is Touted For Preservation

May 25, 1997|By Wes Smith, Tribune Staff Writer.

As Congress considers a bill to recognize and preserve sites along the Underground Railroad network that freed thousands of African-American slaves, three southern Illinois history buffs are promoting inclusion of a landmark that they claim belonged to a "reverse Underground Railroad."

While some historians remain skeptical of their conclusions, the three say the original owner of the Old Slave House in Equality in Gallatin County was just one of many profiteers who captured runaway slaves in Illinois and sold them back into slavery.

"While we can all take pride in the efforts of the legitimate Underground Railroad, we shouldn't forget that there were others doing just the opposite," said Jon Musgrave of Marion, who researched the Underground Railroad while doing graduate work at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Rep. Glenn Poshard (D-Ill.) of Marion and Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) are sponsoring legislation calling for the National Park Service to preserve the Underground Railroad's 380 known sites. The bill would allocate $500,000 for restoring known sites, research and printing materials as well as devising a trail system.

To tell the story of slavery in America, the Old Slave House should be included in the federal preservation effort, Musgrave said.

"Just as the Underground Railroad was a national organization, so was the reverse Underground Railroad," he said. "We found that slaves kidnapped in southern Illinois were sold back to owners in Kentucky. We found that some slave children were sold in the St. Louis slave market, and we know of one case where President (William Henry) Harrison's former slaves were captured and sold in New Orleans."

Poshard, who grew up on a farm 15 miles from the Old Slave House and is well-acquainted with its lore, said he would recommend that it be preserved as a historic attraction "so that future generations can see evidence of man's inhumanity to man."

Researcher Musgrave, who works as reporter for the Daily Register in Harrisburg, said that along with the Old Slave House, the "reverse" Underground Railroad sites included two caves--one near Equality, the other near Harrisburg--and a now-demolished house in Old Shawneetown that locals remember as having cells and wall shackles in its basement, he said.

The Old Slave House is the only remaining building in the reverse Underground Railroad in southern Illinois and its owner, John Hart Crenshaw, built his extensive business and land holdings on profits from illegal slave-trading, Musgrave said.

Illinois state historian Tom Schwartz noted that under federal fugitive slave laws that existed before the Civil War, bounty hunters and "slave chasers" were, for the most part, operating legally. It was those who assisted slaves in escaping who were violating the law, he said.

"Of course, there were also bands of marauders who captured runaways but instead of returning them to their owners and collecting the legal bounty, they would sell them to others who might offer more money," Schwartz said.

Musgrave and his fellow researchers believe Crenshaw was such a "marauder," but Schwartz and other historians are not convinced.

"They have evidence that Crenshaw was charged with kidnapping slaves but not that he was ever convicted," said SIU history professor John Simon. "I will say that Crenshaw was no saint and it wouldn't surprise me if he was engaged in nefarious trades such as the sale of human property, but the hard evidence is still lacking."

Musgrave said he can't prove many details about what happened in the house.

"We can tie Crenshaw to five kidnappings involving at least 12 individuals," he said. "We found one report of a 10-year-old black male who was kidnapped and sold for $200 at a time when that amount could purchase 400 acres of land."

Crenshaw's activities and the history of the striking three-story house he built on his 9,000-acre plantation in 1838 have long been debated.

For 35 years, current owner George Sisk has earned his living by giving paid tours of the house. On those tours, he told legends of recaptured slaves being held captive in crude third-floor cells, where they allegedly were tortured and even "bred" by Crenshaw.

Many Illinois historians and also many of Crenshaw's descendants have denied the accounts told by Sisk, who in recent years has urged supporters to send more than 100 letters to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency petitioning it to purchase the Old Slave House for preservation.

The well-preserved house already is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And preservation agency officials say that Sisk, a cantankerous sort who thinks state historians would rather hide the house's dark past, has spurned their efforts to discuss the matter.

This winter, he closed the house to the public and has threatened to demolish it if the upkeep gets too expensive.

Intrigued by the controversy surrounding the Old Slave House, Musgrave joined local history buffs Ron Nelson of McLeansboro and Gary DeNeal of Rudement in a six-month search of archives and court records in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri to determine whether there are any records to support Sisk's claims.

DeNeal published their findings earlier this year in Springhouse, his regional magazine, and the Harrisburg paper printed excerpts.

Their findings appear to support many of Sisk's claims about Crenshaw and the Old Slave House, Musgrave said.

Court records and news clippings show that Crenshaw was twice indicted for kidnapping free blacks, most of them children, but the powerful landowner won acquittal in at least one case.